Inwood

Upper Manhattan will soon be home to the city’s first-ever institution dedicated to the vibrant arts and culture of the Dominican Republic. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sunday announced $12.5 million in funding to help establish the Dominican Center for the Arts and Culture at 375 West 207th Street. The center will include a museum and exhibition space featuring Dominican artists, a theater space, a children's library, and an oral history and archives project preserving the cultural history of Inwood/Washington Heights, the most populous Dominican neighborhood in the country.
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Policy

Inwood development with public library and 100% affordable housing opens

Image courtesy of NYPL/Jonathan Blanc

June 27, 2024

Inwood development with public library and 100% affordable housing opens

New York City this week celebrated the opening of a unique new development in Inwood that combines a public library with affordable housing. City officials on Wednesday opened The Eliza, a 14-story rental with 174 deeply affordable apartments atop a two-level New York Public Library branch. In addition to 100 percent affordable homes and a public library, the project at 4790 Broadway also includes a pre-K space, STEM learning center, and community facility.
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NYC unveils plan to develop 570 affordable homes on Inwood parking lot

All images courtesy of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development

January 30, 2024

NYC unveils plan to develop 570 affordable homes on Inwood parking lot

New York City is moving forward with an ambitious plan to advance two dozen affordable housing projects on public land this year. The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) on Monday began the public outreach process for the redevelopment of an unused city-owned parking lot in Inwood with roughly 570 affordable homes, public green space, and a STEM facility. The Inwood Waterfront project falls under Mayor Eric Adams' "24 in 24" plan, which pushes for 24 affordable housing developments on 24 publicly-owned sites to ultimately create or preserve more than 12,000 housing units.
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NYC breaks ground on Inwood performing arts center dedicated to immigrant experience

Renderings courtesy of the People’s Theatre Project

October 26, 2023

NYC breaks ground on Inwood performing arts center dedicated to immigrant experience

Officials on Wednesday celebrated the groundbreaking of The People's Theatre: Centro Cultural Immigrante, a 19,000-square-foot performing arts and research center in Inwood dedicated to immigrants and the immigrant experience. Designed by woman-and-immigrant-owned architecture firm WORKac and theater and acoustics consultant Charcoalblue, the center will feature a flexible midsize theater, a smaller performance space, rehearsal studios, a soundproof practice room, gallery space, and educational programming. Centro Cultural Immigrante, located within a huge mixed-use development at 405-407 West 206th Street, is scheduled to open its doors in 2026.
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Events & Things To Do

Live above Inwood’s new public library, from $397/month

Rendering of The Eliza courtesy of the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development

August 17, 2023

Live above Inwood’s new public library, from $397/month

Attention New York bookworms: Here's a chance to live above a brand-new city library. A housing lottery opened this week for 138 affordable apartments at The Eliza, a 14-story rental in Inwood. Located at 4790 Broadway, the development includes deeply affordable apartments and a two-level New York Public Library branch at its base. New Yorkers earning 30, 40, 50, and 60 percent of the area median income, or between $16,183 for a single person annually and $105,060 for a household of seven, can apply for the apartments, which range from $397/month studios to $1,841/month three bedrooms.
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Affordable Housing

56 apartments for low-income seniors available in Inwood

Renderings courtesy of Coconut Properties

July 10, 2023

56 apartments for low-income seniors available in Inwood

56 affordable units designed for seniors are available at a new senior supportive housing project in Manhattan. Located at 37 Hillside Avenue in Inwood, the building offers senior residents social services, space to worship, and plenty of outdoor green space. Applicants must have at least one household member who is 62 years of age or older, qualifies for Section 8 benefits, and earns no more than $60,050 annually. Eligible New Yorkers will pay 30 percent of their income for the available studio and one-bedroom apartments.
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Affordable Housing

$416M mixed-use development will bring 700 new apartments to Inwood

Renderings courtesy of the New York Governor’s Office

May 10, 2023

$416M mixed-use development will bring 700 new apartments to Inwood

A massive mixed-use development project will bring nearly 700 mixed-income housing units to Upper Manhattan. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday announced the two buildings, located at 405 and 407 West 206th Street in Inwood, will feature all-electric heating and cooling and other sustainable features to help the state reach its carbon reduction goals. The $416 million complex includes a mix of studio, one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, 281 of which will be reserved for residents earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income.
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People’s Theatre Project will run NYC’s first immigrant research and performing arts center

Photo by kathryn on Flickr

May 20, 2022

People’s Theatre Project will run NYC’s first immigrant research and performing arts center

The Upper Manhattan-based People's Theatre Project (PTP) will run the city's first research and arts center dedicated to immigrants and the immigrant experience in New York. On Thursday, Mayor Eric Adams announced the selection of the PTP Company, an immigrant and women-led nonprofit, to own and manage the Immigrant Research and Performing Arts Center (IRPAC), which is expected to open in Inwood in 2027. The city will grant the company $15 million to put towards the creation of the new 17,000-square-foot center, which will be developed by LMXD, MSquared, and Taconic Partners.
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Events & Things To Do

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum opens new art exhibit exploring untold history of NYC’s Black communities

Photo Credit: Dyckman Farmhouse Museum Alliance

October 19, 2020

Dyckman Farmhouse Museum opens new art exhibit exploring untold history of NYC’s Black communities

The last remaining farmhouse in Manhattan will explore a new side of its over 200-year history with an art exhibit. Inwood's landmarked Dyckman Farmhouse Museum on Tuesday will open the exhibition Unspoken Voices: Honoring the Legacy of Black America, which will highlight the history of the enslaved and free Black residents that lived and worked at the farm. Unspoken Voices, which coincides with the museum's reopening, includes work by five local artists who hope to bring these previously untold stories to light.
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Events & Things To Do

Inwood rezoning plan can move forward, appeals court rules

Photo of Inwood Hill Park by Dana on Flickr

July 24, 2020

Inwood rezoning plan can move forward, appeals court rules

The plan to rezone Inwood can move forward, a state appeals court ruled on Thursday. The decision comes after a judge in December overturned the land-use changes approved by the City Council in 2018 to rezone 59 blocks of the northern Manhattan neighborhood. But in their decision, the appellate court said the City Council "acted properly and consistently" with review procedures.
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Policy

Judge overturns city’s plan to rezone Inwood

Photo by kathryn on Flickr

December 20, 2019

Judge overturns city’s plan to rezone Inwood

A state Supreme Court judge on Thursday overturned land-use changes approved by the City Council in 2018 to rezone the neighborhood of Inwood. A group of local residents and preservationists filed a lawsuit against the rezoning last December, claiming the plan did nothing to protect the community from displacement, as well as other effects of gentrification. In the decision, Judge Verna Saunders said the city "failed to take a hard look at the relevant areas of concern identified by the public" and did not comply with a state environmental quality review.
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Policy

City seeks nonprofit to run NYC’s first cultural institution dedicated to immigrants

Inwood Hill Park, courtesy of Dana on Flickr

September 6, 2019

City seeks nonprofit to run NYC’s first cultural institution dedicated to immigrants

The city is seeking proposals from nonprofits interested in running a new immigrant research center and performing arts center in Inwood. The city's Economic Development Corporation and the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) released a request for expressions of interest on Wednesday for a nonprofit organization to "design, construct, and operate" the Northern Manhattan Immigrant Research and Performing Arts Center (IRPAC). The neighborhood boasts a diverse community, with 49 percent foreign-born as well as the city's highest concentration of residents of Dominican descent.
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City files plans for 174 affordable apartments at Inwood library site

Renderings courtesy of Fogarty Finger Architecture and Andrew Berman Architect

April 2, 2019

City files plans for 174 affordable apartments at Inwood library site

The city this week filed plans with the Department of Buildings for the redevelopment of Inwood's New York Public Library branch, as first reported by Patch. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development revealed last March plans to transform the current site into a new 14-story residential building with a three-level library at its base. Above the new state-of-the-art library, there will be 174 permanently affordable apartments, designated for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income.
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Designs sought for two new waterfront parks in Inwood

Inwood Hill Park via Flickr

February 11, 2019

Designs sought for two new waterfront parks in Inwood

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration is seeking ideas for two new waterfront parks in Inwood, as first reported by Curbed. The city's Economic Development Corporation released a request for proposals on Monday for a consultant or team to design a pair of parks along the Harlem River in the Manhattan neighborhood. The plan falls under the Inwood rezoning, which was approved last August and intends to deliver $200 million in public investments. During the process, stakeholders pushed for new open space and upgraded parks to be included in the rezoning, as the waterfront remains inaccessible to many in the community.
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Architecture And Design

Landmarks designates new Inwood historic district

Image courtesy of NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission via Flickr.

December 11, 2018

Landmarks designates new Inwood historic district

The city's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted today to designate the Park Terrace West-West 217th Street Historic District in the Inwood section of Manhattan. The historic district features an enclave of picturesque early 20th-century houses with landscaped topography that stand out among the neighborhood’s apartment buildings.
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The best affordable and student-friendly off-campus neighborhoods in NYC

Columbia campus, via Pixabay

August 9, 2018

The best affordable and student-friendly off-campus neighborhoods in NYC

By Cait Etherington

If you can’t bear the idea of living in the dorms for another year, you’re not alone. Unless you happen to go to Columbia where over 90 percent of students live on campus, there's a high likelihood you’ll be searching for your own apartment at some point during your college years, just like 57 percent of students at NYU and 74 percent at The New School. And if you're like most students, you’ll be looking for an apartment far from downtown that strikes the right balance between affordability, commutability, and access to services. To help you make the smartest decision possible, 6sqft has compiled a list of affordable, student-friendly neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. By New York City standards, all of these are both safe (e.g., reported fewer than 1.5447 crimes per 1000 people in June 2018) and within reach (e.g., on average, three-bedroom units can still be rented for less than $5,000 per month). Using July 2018 City Realty data on average neighborhood rents, we've broken down how much you’ll pay on average to live in a three-bedroom shared unit in each of these neighborhoods. We’ve also provided average commute times to both Union Square, which is easily walkable to NYU, The New School, and Cooper Union, and to the Columbia University campus.
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59-block Inwood rezoning vote draws protests from residents who fear its character will be lost

Inwood Hill Park; Image: Dana via Flickr.

August 9, 2018

59-block Inwood rezoning vote draws protests from residents who fear its character will be lost

On Wednesday the City Council approved a rezoning plan for a 59-block section of Inwood, a neighbhorhood often referred to as the "last affordable neighborhood in Manhattan," the New York Times reports. The plan was approved last week by the city's zoning subcommittee and the Land Use Committee. The Inwood rezoning is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to rezone neighborhoods across the city as part of the push to create and preserve 300,000 affordable housing units by his goal date of 2026. Inwood is the fifth neighborhood–including the also-controversial East New York and East Harlem–to be approved for rezoning under the plan.
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Inwood Library project will have 175 affordable apartments and a new Pre-K

Renderings courtesy of Fogarty Finger Architecture and Andrew Berman Architect

March 7, 2018

Inwood Library project will have 175 affordable apartments and a new Pre-K

By Emily Nonko

The former site of the Inwood Library is undergoing a major upgrade, with the city announcing a shiny new development that will hold the branch, 175 units of deeply affordable apartments, and a brand new pre-k facility. The decision to tear down the old library building is the result of months of community engagement and neighborhood planning exercises through the city's Inwood Affordable Housing and Library Planning Process.
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July 19, 2017

The history of Fort George: Manhattan’s long-lost amusement park in Inwood

Did you know Washington Heights and Inwood used to be home to a giant amusement park? In 1895, the Fort George Amusement Park opened on Amsterdam Avenue between 190th and 192nd Streets, overlooking the Harlem River in what is now Highbridge Park. Located in the same spot as George Washington’s fight against the British, "Harlem’s Coney Island" rivaled Brooklyn’s Coney Island with roller coasters, Ferris wheels, a skating rink, fortune tellers, music halls, casinos, and hotels.
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History

April 26, 2017

City will spend $100M on a new esplanade to close the gap along Manhattan’s East River greenway

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday that the city would develop the gap in the Manhattan waterfront greenway that runs between 41st and 61st Streets along the East River. The city has pledged to spend $100 million on closing the largest unfinished space in the 32-mile loop, including a new esplanade, with an additional $5 million to be spent on filling smaller gaps in East Harlem and Inwood. “The Hudson River Greenway has vastly improved quality of life on the West Side, and we want families in every corner in the borough to have that same access to bike, walk and play along the water,” said the mayor in a statement. “This is the first of many big investments we’ll make as we bring the full Greenway to reality.”
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August 4, 2015

Are the City’s Bodegas Becoming a Thing of the Past?